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Updated Report: Assessing Access to Green Areas in Europ's Cities

Green Areas in Europe

30/01/2018

shutterstock (S. Andreas Peter)

Green areas in cities, like parks, public gardens and nearby forests fulfil a variety of functions, ranging from ecological values to recreational functions. They also provide aesthetic value and they play a role in promoting public health. In a general way, these areas contribute to a better quality of life of the inhabitants.

In 2016, DG REGIO produced a document describing a methodology for developing indicators on access to green urban areas for the populations of cities in Europe.

An updated version of this report has been released on the 12th of January 2018. The results are available for nearly all cities in the EU and EFTA countries, and are compared to more traditional indicators on the presence of green urban areas.

The method implemented to produce this paper uses Copernicus Urban Atlas (visit the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service website to learn more about this product) polygons for various urban centres or cities.